New Venture #1: "Do what you love, the Money will Follow."

That is the title of a book I read awhile back. Basically it teaches that one should enjoy the work which is done. If you truly enjoy it, then the work isn’t as hard.
My DW and I have decided to start making and selling cutting boards at craft shows. We’re dividing up the labor, I’m handling the crafting, she’ll handle the booth work. My plan is that this will be one aspect of working for ourselves to bring in more money , ther other being my photo studio work. Now the trick is to get the products glued up and ready for sale.

I started building up the stock…

I prepped enough for about 5 cutting boards today, only got three of them actually glued up:

here is what I hope will be one of my ‘fancy’ boards, All maple:

I even made a couple of new push sticks… the one you saw above for the tablesaw, and another for putting really small stock through the bandsaw:

Kunk,
Thanks, that board had a very nice organic feel to it. I think I can figure out the build from your post! I’m going to be working mostly with what I have on hand. Ie, no new tools yet (which a vacuum system definitely would be). I am planning on a couple of new blades for my bandsaw, especially a woodslicer so I don’t waste so much wood when ripping the boards down for glue-up. I swept up a couple of bf last night after ripping all of that stock down. If you check out my projects section, I’ve got the build process down, I just need a bit more raw stock and I’m good to go.

Mike, fun is always a priortiy!

One thing I forgot to note, both of my older boys ages 16 and 22 helped out with prep yesterday, so this is a family project.

Ned, all the best of luck with your plans. The title of that book is true. I started doing that about 20 years ago and here I am still making a wonderful living out of what I love. Believe in your dreams and they WILL come true! The most important thing is PERSISTENCE.

-- Div @ the bottom end of Africa. "A woodworker's sharpest tool should be his mind."